


sunlight falls

by onlyshe



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Cuddling, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Lazy Mornings, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Canon, Self-Reflection, take those last two tags very lightly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28827879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlyshe/pseuds/onlyshe
Summary: "All Hinata does is wonder and worry. Rarely does he spare the time to think of himself."in the wake of a drowsy morning, hinata faces the what-is of life after spending so much time dwelling on the what-ifs.
Relationships: Hinata Hajime/Komaeda Nagito
Comments: 10
Kudos: 117





	sunlight falls

**Author's Note:**

> title frm "where everybody goes" by loving - a very serene track, give it a listen if you please
> 
> hope you enjoy this as much as i did writing it it :)

It is a drowsy morning.

There is a gentle  _ pitter-patter _ against the window of Hinata's cottage. The rain is whispering a sleepy  _ good morning _ to them, too tired to come down as anything harder than a gentle shower. 

The sun has begun to creep above the horizon, tainting the lower half of the sky with a brilliant reddish-gold. It, too, is sluggish in it's movements, as if the moon has roused it much too early to begin its ascent. The grey clouds overhead only slightly muffle the vibrance of the sun, for they are too skimpy and light to fully defend against the sunrise. Still, they do a decent job at dulling the rays of light which beam into Hinata's room, filling the room with a dull red glow.

Komaeda shifts in his sleep, pressing himself closer to Hinata's chest. The brunet nestles his head further into the crook of Komaeda's neck, then opts to pull him a bit closer to his chest. He exhales, corners of his lips drifting into the beginnings a lazy smile.

Hinata has been straddling the border between conscious and unconscious for what, he feels, have been hours. This morning is so easy, so peaceful — he doesn't dare interrupt it. He is content enough laying in bed with Komaeda asleep in his arms, content enough listening to the rain weakly graze his cottage. 

It feels domestic, in an odd sort of way, this scene Hinata finds himself in.

He smiles to himself at that. He could get used to a life like this with Komaeda, full of slow early mornings and nights full of talk.

His head is still throbbing dully from the previous night's round of chatter. It was exhausting, emotionally taxing on both himself and the boy he holds so dearly in his arms. 

He finds the way Komaeda's body lays against his to be weird, solely because this Komaeda is so different from the one he came to know in the situation. The simulated Komaeda was bubbling with life, so much so that it seemed like it wanted to burst through his skin. He looked healthy and strong, his pale skin alive with peachy undertones. He had wondered what it would be like to hold Komaeda in his arms then, to soothe his worries away with a kiss or three, to spend time to chip away at the shield of deceit he had crafted so carefully around him.

He wondered if that's what it would've been like to hold Komaeda then, the spitting image of a sparkling seventeen-year-old, hope glimmering in his pale eyes akin to sunlight glimmering on the waves behind them. Hinata is slightly resentful, forever kicking himself for never reaching out to Komaeda in the simulation, forever left to wonder about the _ what-if _ as he stumbles through  _ what-is _ .

He supposes what he has isn't too bad, disregarding the myriad of problems attached to being a stranger to himself. Having Komaeda here is enough to soothe the flames of his agonized mind. He makes the days more bearable.

Komaeda shifts in his sleep, wisps of pale hair brushing against Hinata's face. He gives him a gentle squeeze.

This Komaeda is different from the one he came to know in the simulation. It seems as though all of the life has been wrung from him, the soft edges to his slight form having been shaved from him entirely, leaving a gaunt figure in its place. His long limbs are awkward, lacking much of the muscle his young avatar possessed. His skin is pulled taut across every inch of his body. Hinata worries sometimes, worrying that if he leans into the porcelain too hard, he will shatter in his grasp. 

When he looks at Komaeda, he sees someone trapped between youth and adulthood, scarred by his past and unable to shake the remnants of despair which cling so desperately to him. Hinata tries his damndest to accommodate Komaeda, but he still cannot help but wonder if Komaeda has been recovering well in the three months they've been awake. He worries for Komaeda, borderline anemic and skeletal in appearance, trapped in a near-constant state of aloofness. 

All Hinata does is wonder and worry. Rarely does he spare the time to think of himself.

Save for last night. His head still throbs with the memory of the long conversation they had. He isn't in the mood to contemplate the finer details of it now, not when he's enjoying the morning bliss. 

"Hajime?

Hinata startles, kissing the crook of Komaeda's neck before he pulls his head away. The other boy moans in displeasure, his bare shoulder feeling empty without the warmth and weight of Hinata's head tucked into it. "Good morning..."

He pauses, realizing Komaeda had addressed him by his given name. Warmth begins to pool in his stomach, though he ignores it to contemplate whether or not he should address him in the same way. He wonders if the change is in part to the talk they had last night, wonders if it was just a sleepy slip of the tongue. 

Indecisiveness winds up besting Hinata. The two words hang in the air, unfinished and heavy. 

Komaeda doesn't seem to notice, instead wriggling himself free of Hinata's embrace so he can turn around to face him. Hinata feels his breath catch in his throat when his eyes meet those of Komaeda, whose pale green eyes are dulled by residual sleep, eyelids struggling to keep themselves from snapping shut. Hinata can only describe him as  _ beautiful _ , the soft sunrise swaddling him in pale pinks and reds. 

"How did you sleep?" Hinata breathes, admiring the way Komaeda's lashes appear strawberry blonde in the luminescence of the sun.

"As always, your concern over me is endearing, Hinata-kun, and I truly do appreciate it, even if I don't think I am worthy of your concern." Hinata frowns, about to interject and chastise him for his bout of self-deprecation, though Komaeda begins talking again before he can. "It's more important that you slept well last night. Our talk seemed to have taken a lot out of you… do you feel any better, Hinata-kun?"

Hinata sighs and sits up, Komaeda doing the same. Komaeda takes his hand, rubbing circles into the back of it, the cool metal of his thumb soothing the waves of nerves crashing through Hinata. He looks at Komaeda, and staring back at him is a mask of worry. The sun casts shadows across his face. He looks haunting, a phantasm of concern.

He averts his gaze to his lap, feeling guilty for making Komaeda fret over him.

"I guess I feel better now that I've slept on it. Thank you, Komaeda, for letting me be so open in front of you."

"Hinata-kun isn't too open to sharing his woes," Komaeda comments. Hinata guffaws.

"I have good reason to avoid doing so."

"I know," sighs Komaeda.

"But it helped to talk to you last night. I don't know what I would do without you, Komaeda." He smiles as Komaeda laces their hands together. "I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I wake up everyday hating myself, hating the things I've done and everything I once stood for. It's been hard, going these past three months rediscovering myself and trying to come to terms with who I am now, but…"

Hinata gives Komaeda's prosthetic hand a tender squeeze. "You make everything more bearable."

Warm lips press against his damp cheek, and his heart drops in his chest. 

"Though… I'm not sure I deserve your affections."

Komaeda snatches his hand away from Hinata as if he had been scalded. 

An uncomfortable heaviness settles in the air, the room largely silent. Outside, the rain seems to have momentarily picked up the pace, rapping against the window panes in a near-constant titter. Komaeda's breathing has turned ragged and heavy, bordering the line of laborious and hyperventilation, a miffed wheezing sound being squeezed from his poor lungs as if he were a broken squeaky toy. It's a noise Hinata hasn't heard in awhile. Komaeda only gets this way when his emotions are on the fritz.

Internally, Hinata kicks himself for being the cause of his distress.

"Don't ever say that again," Komaeda hisses, his voice rough, "because if anything, I am the one who doesn't deserve you. You… you are everything I wish I could be, a true symbol of hope, what it  _ means _ to be an ultimate, and you sit here acting as if you are beneath some scum like me? You've told me yourself that you kept running psychodives on me while I was still under, desperate to reach me. When you weren't glued to my pod, you were tinkering in the warehouse, making me a new hand. For god sake, you're the one who  _ attached _ the prosthetic to me! You are brilliant, the absolute definition of what it means to be great, and you think you don't deserve  _ me _ ?"

The pale boy turns to Hinata and grabs his face with his prosthetic. Hinata finally raises his eyes to meet his gaze, and peering back at him are pale lakes shimmering with worry and astonishment, gray-green oceans full of soft waves carrying tenderness and appreciation. 

"I believe in you, and everything that you are now, have been, and ever will be."

Komaeda presses their lips together, and Hinata melts into the kiss. His worries are washed away as Komaeda's tongue slips into his mouth, any sense of self-doubt he once had being erased at the sound of Komaeda giggling breathily against him. He snakes a hand around Komaeda's waist, pulling him close; his other hand gets itself lost in Komaeda's chaotic white locks. 

For the first time in months, Hinata feels at peace with himself. His heart thuds loudly in his chest, loud and alive for Komaeda's touch.

They break apart in a fit of giddy laughter, and Hinata detangles his hand from Komaeda's hair. He brushes a stray strand of hair from in front of his eyes, then along the outside of Komaeda's face and then down to outline the sharpness of his jaw. His touch is featherlight against porcelain skin, full of care and the small fear of shattering beneath his fingertips. 

"Nagito?"

He feels Komaeda tense against him. 

The pale boy opens his mouth to offer an answer, but no sound comes out. Hinata takes a deep breath and presses forward.

"Promise me you'll stay with me. You are… the only thing keeping me from crumbling in on myself, and… I'm just so happy whenever I'm with you."

He lets his hand fall from Komaeda's starstruck face. The air in the room has once again grown heavy, though this time, it is not because of Komaeda taking Hinata's self-doubt as if it were a personal attack against himself. This time, the weight which has settled over the cottage is one of warmth. 

The rain has finally come to an end outside, leaving the boys together in silence. The sun has finally risen above the horizon and parted through the thin grey clouds dashed across the sky. No longer are they eclipsed in shadow, the cadaverous features of Komaeda no longer accentuated by the darkness and Hinata's skin no longer dull and grey — they are alive, glowing with the soft reds and oranges the sun paints them in. The world outside is humming with life same as them now, blissfully alive and clinging to one another.

Life is fragile. Komaeda has proven such a thing to be true to Hinata time and time again. The brunet often thinks about mortality, his own life and the many he has taken and cringes at the thought of a world soaked in red from his hand. He struggles to move forward sometimes, feeling too strongly for the deaths he once felt nothing over, feeling adrift in the uncertain sea that composes his mind. It's hard to wake up everyday, not being able to piece yourself back together.

But when he is with Komaeda, sweet, eccentric Komaeda, he is able to feel at home in his own skin. Losing him in the simulation was the worst pain he had ever felt, and waking up for two weeks without seeing Komaeda move an inch was enough to drive him to the brink of insanity. He looks at the white-haired boy now, his snowy skin teeming with an excellent mandarin glow and his pale eyes twinkling in the sunlight, and feels more alive than he's felt in awhile.

This Komaeda is different from the one he came to know in the simulation, but beneath it all, they remain the same. He is still marred by the actions of Enoshima and borderline delusional in his hope-related ramblings. He still finds the mundanity of everyday life to be interesting and exciting, whether he's listening to Tanaka analyze him through the gaze of the occult or simply steeping some tea for himself and Sonia to share over breakfast. He still bubbles with life and his own little quirks, even if he seems more susceptible to sudden mood-switches and breakdowns than he had in the simulation.

He is still the Komaeda he fell in love with, beneath it all.

"Hajime?"

And, despite everything, it seems Komaeda loves him too.

"Nagito?"

His name feels foreign on his tongue, though he likes the way the three syllables drip so smoothly from his lips. 

"I wish the world was better. For you. For me. For us. I hope that one day, we'll be able to see a happy ending together." Komaeda's voice is weak, the amount of emotion he packs into every word seeming to overwhelm him. Hinata pulls him closer, and Komaeda leans into him, laying his head upon his shoulder and sighing deeply. "I promise I'll stay with you until the end. Being with you makes me deeply elated, and the amount of gratitude I have for you, Hinata-kun..."

Komaeda lets out a choked sob, a deep shudder running through his body. Hinata holds him tighter, feels how bony and fragile Komaeda feels in his embrace, feels as if he cannot let go or else all the pieces which make him up will end up undone. 

"From the bottom of my heart, I…" his voice grows impossibly smaller, "I love you, Hajime."

Outside, the songbirds have come out of hiding and began to sing their songs, welcoming in the new dawn. Komaeda is sobbing into Hinata's shoulder, his body shuddering from the amount of raw emotion flooding from his body. Whispered words of affirmation and a plethora of sweet nothings drip from Hinata's lips as he tries to comfort Komaeda, all while trying to keep himself composed.

Hinata's eyes flutter shut as he allows himself to join this moment of tears. 

At twenty-two, this Komaeda is considerably more garish than the boy of five years past, more hardened by the world around him and marred by his past. Despite always wondering how it would be to hold the whole Komaeda in his arms, wondering how it would feel to hold the seventeen-year-old he met in the simulation and found to be kind to the core, he is content the way they are now, two young adults arising from the ashes of a past painted in red.

He is happy to hold this Komaeda in his arms.

The amount of joy he gets out of being able to sit here now, feeling Komaeda shudder and sob into his bare shoulder, is indescribable. Hinata is content with this, and he doesn't think he would rather have Komaeda any other way. 

He's excited for what the future has in store for the two of them, even if he  _ is _ quite fearful of what may lie on the journey ahead. 

The sun is beginning to lose it's reddish hue as it stands taller in the sky, now casting a bold orange light upon the two lovers. 

The new dawn ushers in a new day, and along with it welcomes in this blossoming warmth, the unmistakable tender bloom of newfound love.

**Author's Note:**

> if you assumed that the "mysterious talk of last night" was hinata opening up about how disconnected he feels from himself and is still struggling to come to terms with living with kamukura -- ur right:)
> 
> zzz i hope this came out ok - i haven't written anything in months!!
> 
> ty for reading ^_^ <3


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